Stock-fountain.



E. B. NORQUIST.

STOCK FOUNTAIN. APPLICATION FILED NOV. e, 1906.

901,730. Patented 0ct.20,1908;

PATENT OFFICE.

EMANUEL E. NORQUIST, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

STOCK-FOUNTAIN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 20, 1908.

Application filed November 6, 1906. Serial No. 342,276.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMANUEL E. NOR- QUIsT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Stock- Fountains, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to stock fountains, and my object is to produce a device of this character from which small stock or fowls may drink without being crowded by the large stock drinking from the same fountain and in which it is impossible for hogs to wallow.

A further object is to produce a stock fountain whereby the water of the lower drinking chamber shall be automatically maintained at a uniform level.

A still further object is to produce a stock fountainof simple, strong, durable and inexpensive construction.

To these ends the invention consists in certain novel and peculiar features of construction and organization as hereinafter described and claimed; and in order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1, is a perspective view of a stock fountain embodying my invention. Fig. 2, is a vertical section of the same on the line II II of Fig. 3. Fig. 3, is a horizontal section on the line III-III of Fig. 1.

In the said drawing, 1 indicates a cylindrical tank of galvanized iron or other noncorrosive metalby preference, provided at equi-distant points near its lower end with openings 2, of size to permit fowls or other small stock to reach in their heads a sufficient distance to obtain a drink of water as hereinafter explained.

3 indicates an inverted frustum-shaped partition dividing the tank into an upper and a lower chamber and having its. truncated end resting on the bottom of the cylindrical tank by preference and riveted thereto at 4, if desirable, the upper margin of the partition being secured with a water-tight relation to the tank by rivets 5 or otherwise. This partition forms the bottom proper for the tank, the upper chamber con taining the water for charging the lower chamber from which the small stock drink, the large stock, such as cows and horses, drinking through the open top of the upper chamber. The partition is provided with a discharge opening 6 through which projects inwardly and upwardly an arm of a bell crank lever 7 pivoted to bearing brackets 8 secured externally to the partition. Above the latter a valve 9 is secured to the lever and when the lower chamber is charged with water to the desired depth the valve is caused to close opening 6 by the upward movement imparted to the float 10, carried by the lever at the opposite side of its pivotal point.

In practice a tank of this character provided with four openings 2, can be arranged at the meeting point of four stock inclosures so that the stock in each inclosure may have access through one of the openings 2 to the same supply of water. If the openings 2 are all of size to accommodate large hogs for instance, and there are small pigs in one of the pens it is possible for such small pigs to pass into the lower chamber and injure or interfere with the proper operation of the valve and to guard against this contingency a pair of guards of wire or sheet metal as shown at 11, are preferably secured to the wall of the tank and to the partition at opposite sides of the valve, one or both of said guards being of course provided with an opening 12 to permit the water which is discharged from the upper into the lower chamber to pass freely from the valve inclosure throughout said chamber. If a small animal should enter the drinking chamber as suggested and find the space too contracted to turn around and pass out through the opening by which it entered it will see one of the other openings just ahead and can escape through the same into the connecting inclosure.

In practice it will be apparent that as the animals drink the float will drop and open the valve to permit additional water to enter the lower drinking chamber, the same being thus automatically supplied until the level of the water in the tank proper falls below the valve opening.

By the arrangement described it will be obvious that it will be impossible for the water to overflow through openings 2, and that the drinking water will be kept cleaner than in any fountain or trough-in which it is possible for hogs to wallow.

To guard against the contamination of the water by a hog or other animal rubbing himself against the edge of one of the openings 2, the tank is equipped externally at the opposite sides of each opening with vertical ribs 13 formed of sheet metal bent to approximately V-form and riveted or otherwise secured to the tank, these ribs serving also to stiffen and strengthen the tank. To facilitate the cleaning of the latter it is provided with a drain cock 14 of any suitable or preferred type. In Fig. 1 the ribs 13 are shown only adjacent one opening 2, as the illustration of such ribs contiguous to the openings 2, which appear at opposite sides of the tank would hide such openings from view.

The guards for the valve mechanism are shown of skeleton form as appears most clearly in Fig. 2, in order to give convenient access to the valve lever which by preference will be of material which can be readily bent to permit the float to be adjusted to accommodate wear of the valve or to enable the operator to vary the quantity or depth of the water in the drinking chamber.

From the above description it will be apparent that I have produced a stock fountain possessing'the features of advantage enumerated as desirable and I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as obvious modifications will occur to a person skilled in the art.

Having thus described the invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A stock fountain, comprising an opentop tank constituting a drinking-chamber for large stock and provided with a plurality of openings in its side near its bottom, an inverted conical shaped partition extending from the bottom to the sides and terminating in a plane above said openings and havinga water-tight connection with said bottom and sides and dividing the tank into an upper chamber and a lower chamber and provided with an orifice, a valve controlling said orifice and located within the upper chamber, a float pivotally secured to said partition and located in the lower chamber and adapted to be raised by the water passing from the upper into the lower chamber through said orifice, to close said valve, and to descend as the water level in the lower chamber falls, to unseat the valve, and a pair of radial partitions of rightangle-triangle form, within the lower chamber and disposed at opposite sides of said float, one of said partitions being provided with an opening below the plane of the lower edges of the openings in the side of r the tank.

2. A stock fountain comprising a tank having an opening in its side near its bottom, ribs secured externally to the tank at opposite sides of and adjacent to said opening a partition dividing the tank into an upper chamber and a lower chamber and provided with an opening, a valve controlling said opening and a float in the lower chamber, connected to the valve to cause the latter to close as the float rises and open j as it descends. I

In testimony whereof I aflix-my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

EMANUEL E. NORQUIST.

Witnesses H. C. RODGERS, G. Y. THORPE. 

